My Audio API guide got quite a few responses.

The Good

Takashi likes it. And so does David. Which is great because both are key people in the Linux multimedia community.

It made it to LWN. I sincerely and humbly hope this is not going to stay the only news site picking this up. ;-)

The safe ALSA part of the recommendations will most likely be added to the ALSA documentation soon. The GNOME-relevent part I will be adding to the GNOME platform overview.

The Bad

Aaron basically likes it, although he appears disappointed that KDE's and Qt's Phonon wasn't mentioned more positively. Aaron is very fair in his criticism. Nonetheless I don't think it is valid. My guide is not a list of alternatives. It's a list of recommendations. My recommendations. I do believe that my recommendations very much match the mainstream of the opinions of the key people in Linux multimedia and desktop audio. Of course I don't nearly know everyone of the key hackers in Linux multimedia. But I do know most of those who are actively interested in collaboration, whose projects have a lot mindshare and who attend the conferences that matter for Linux desktop audio.

Also see Christian's comments on Aaron's post.

The Ugly

It wasn't my intention to start another GNOME-vs.-KDE flamefest. Unfortunately a lot of people took this as great opportunity to troll at the various blog comment forums. I guess it is inevitable that some of those whose favourite software is not listed on a recommendation guide like this start to clamour about that. It's a pity not everyone who thinks I am treating KDE unfairly criticises that as fairly and reasonable as Aaron. Anyway, I humbly take this as a sign that people do consider this guide to be relevant and much needed. ;-)